Guadalajara (Jalisco, Mexico), the place where Mexican traditions as widely known as tequila and mariachis were born, the second city of the country in population, did also place itself as a leading Mexican city in terms of technology from the 23rd to the 26th of July 2015. As Sao Paulo (Brazil) did in February 2015, during those days Guadalajara hosted Campus Party Mexico 2015 and gathered an audience much bigger than expected. Longing to see some of the participants such as Rodolfo Neri Vela (first Mexican astronaut), Zach King (Vine star) or Bruce Dickinson (lead vocalist of Iron Maiden), campuseros could also live a true FIWARE experience! Do you want to know what we did there? Keep on reading and discover it all!

Right next to Palco Luna, the FIWARE logo brightened with a blue light and in strong contrast to the white that dominated the place. Among other reasons, this year, FIWARE attended Campus Party México 2015 to present the new FIWARE node that is to be open and that will become the biggest node in Latin America, thus strengthening the role that FIWARE plays in Mexico and achieving technological autonomy for the country. This node was presented earlier that week in Mexico D.F. in collaboration with Infotec and the Mexican Technology Platform (MTP). This will allow Mexico, as Juanjo Hierro stated during Campus Party, to be the first Latin American country to deploy FIWARE and its acceleration programmes.

Participants in Campus Party Mexico 2015 could attend both an introductory speech by Juanjo Hierro, Hugo Estrada and Juan Manuel Romero in Palco Tierra and detailed workshops by technology experts to learn how to use FIWARE to make the most out of their ideas. Juan Manuel Romero did also present his own project, Cares, and his own experience as FIWARE entrepreneur, finalist of a FIWARE hackathon in other Campus Party and winner of the FIWARE Smart Society Challenge. But not only that! Attendees could also participate in the #FIWAREIoT competition. They only needed to follow FIWARE on Twitter and tell us what they would connect to the Internet of Things. The best answers got a FIWARE T-Shirt!

Let’s be honest, all of that is great, but the truth is that, if there was something that drew everybody’s attention, it was the FIWARE Smart Apps hackathon, whose prize climbed up to 170,000 pesos (about 10,000 €). Pedro Pablo Rodríguez won the first prize with the project HugTeddy, which allows busy parents to watch for their little children and not to miss out any detail of their growth. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Stay tuned because we will soon post more information about the three projects that got the three prizes, so that you can learn how they used FIWARE to develop their own projects.

In short, Campus Party Mexico was, as it always is, a great and funny experience both for the FIWARE team and all the developers that participated in our activities. The only thing we can say is… see you soon, campuseros!

DevelopersComments Off on Build your own IoT platform with FIWARE enablers

Mar272015

Connecting things

Connecting “objects” or “things” involves the need to overcome a set of problems arising in the different layers of the communication model. Using its data or acting upon them requires interaction with a heterogeneous environment of devices running different protocols (due to the lack of globally accepted standards), dispersed and accessible through multiple wireless technologies.

Devices have a lot of particularities so it is not feasible to provide a solution where one size fits all. They are resource constrained and can’t use full standard protocol stacks: they cannot transmit information too frequently due to battery drainage, they are not always reachable since they are connected through heterogeneous wireless networks, their communication protocols are too specific and lack integrated approach, and they use different data encoding languages, so it is tricky to find a global deployment.

Developers will face complex scenarios where merging the information is a real challenge. For this reason, approaching an IoT platform must enable intermediation and data gathering functions to deal withdevices variety and it must be configurable and adaptable to market needs.

Solving the complexity with an IoT Platform

Each of the problems exposed when connecting “things” can be solved using the different components and tools of an IoT platform: from a connector (IoT Agent) solving the issues of heterogeneous environments where devices with different protocols approach to a common data format: NGSI; to several enablers whose purposes are improving the capacities of the stored information (security tools, advanced data store models, historical retrieval of information, linkage to third party applications…). And all these features are possible when a powerful central enabler, such as Orion Context Broker, is the heart of the architecture, to gather and publish context information at large scale.

A walk throughout some of these components and functionalities would comprise from data acquisition and command execution at device level to data usage from external applications.

Components

IoT Agents

There must be an layer to mediate between devices and the core piece, Context Broker. This module, intended to be a gateway for devices willing to communicate with the rest of the components, is based on agents architecture due to the modularity required to integrate devices within the platform.

IoT Agents act as translators between the protocols that devices use to send or receive information, and a common language and data model across all the platform: FIWARE NGSI.

IoT Agent development framework. The framework is used when it is required to integrate proprietary device protocols. The framework comprises common tasks that simplify the development process, i.e. IoT Agents introduce certain security features, such as authentication of devices or authorization for the channel.

Context Broker

Context Broker has the ability of managing Context Information at large scale in order to be used by the applications or offer it to potential consumers. Managing this information is possible since Context Broker keeps virtual representations of the physical devices. Interaction with devices will happen by updating and modifying the virtual representations attached/corresponding to them.

From an architectural point of view, Context Broker acts as a blackboard in a typical blackboard architecture. It is the core and control piece of the platform, in charge of interacting with the other components and agglutinate data. Therefore, Context Broker plays a key role when developing a data/context scenario.

Functionalities offered by Context Broker can be exploited due to different operations compressed within NGSI APIs exposed.

Short Term Historic

Sometimes, third party applications query about explicit information that could be handled in a faster and simpler way than the one offered by a Big Data analytic tool (more focused in extract implicit, non trivial, information present in the data set). Common operations, such as calculating the minimum, maximum, mean, bias or deviation of a set of data can be performed using a time series database (called from now on Short Term Historic) accurate for these scenarios, without an intermediate step of processing the whole set of data in order to obtain the desired information (and many other information) as insights.

CEP (Complex Event Processing)

Complex Event Processing is intended to analyse and react to events, generating immediate response and triggering actions due to changing conditions. It makes possible instant response or reaction to situations (conditions based on a series of events occurring within a time window) instead of to singular isolated events as other standard reactive apps do. For instance, actions launched through the CEP enabler could be SMS delivery, mail notifications, etc.

Security in the platform

Enablesthe identity management and access control policies: the platform supports an scheme of identity management, authentication and authorization based on three main elements: IdM, PEP, and PAP/PDP. These three elements exist inside the following enablers of the architecture:

The Identity Manager (IdM)carries the information about users, roles and profiles. It also sends and validates tokens, as well as authentication mechanisms.

A Policy Enforcement Point, or PEP, is meant to catch the request from a certain component, and force the requirements specified in terms of identification and authorization for that specific component, before start using it. PEP proxy is in charge of orchestrating all the communications between the IdM element and the PDP element.

For management and assessment of policies, the Access Control enabler chooses the requests after selecting the allowed or banned actions for each role vs. component.

Getting started

The faster alternative to start working with the IoT Agents and Context Broker, is using the FIWARE Lab global instance, or deploy your IoT Bundle, available here:

Speaking about Smart Cities is not futuristic. In cities such as Málaga is already a reality. Hundreds of electronic devices, also called beacons, scattered through the entire city, gather different information that can be useful to enhance the efficiency of cities and improve people’s lives. And, could there be any better beacon than we ourselves, the people? We always carry a device with more than 30 sensors, our smartphones. Shouldn’t we make the most of this?

It is therefore necessary to create an application aiming to gather the information from the sensors in the citizens’ phones and to send it to a central repository to analyze it and make them available to the public as open data, so that everyone can use them for their own benefit.

Málaga CitySense

That platform already exists. The group TOPdigital, through its accelerator Sprita Startups, in collaboration with the Málaga City Council and Telefonica R+D, has developed Málaga CitySense, a project that, by means of citizens’ participation, aims to generate collaborations among users through a mobile application.

This initiative allows the user to act as a sensor, by giving the chance to collaborate actively in the generation of open data thanks to the sensors of smartphones. Málaga CitySense uses the current technology of smartphones and offers the opportunity to share information related to temperature, humidity, noise, mobile signal, etc. in a safe and anonymous way with open data from the city council. That way, any entity longing to make a report can have access to them.

Furthermore, thanks to this application, users can have interesting information about the city in real time about mobility, cultural activities, tourism, jobs, business promotion or data from the city council. Users can also make their complaints in the section “Happening now”, where images and information about the state of traffic, incidences or events can be uploaded.

This application, which can be downloaded from Google Play, has been developed thanks to the platform FIWARE. Currently, it is only available for Android devices. Here you may find a demo of the app:

Blog, eventsComments Off on Review of the European Conference for the Future Internet (ECFI)

Sep182014

At last, after so much work, the FIWARE Accelerator Programme is now being presented at the European Conference for the Future Internet (ECFI) in Munich! Some 400 people are attending this meeting point where developers, entrepreneurs and accelerators can experience this technology first hand. Within the framework of the FIWARE Accelerator Programme, the European Commission destines 80 million euros to fostering innovation and businesses on the Internet of the Future. The motto that could be heard among the conference stages and stands where the accelerators, entities in charge of distributing the funds, presented their target businesses was: “Not without FIWARE”. And the very same objective did Mario Campolargo, chair of Net Futures (European Commission), highlight when he said: “their goal is to promote business projects”.

In the style of a trade fair, ECFI showed its best face from the stands where the enterprises promoted FIWARE and its different strategic domains (Smart Cities, eHealth, Transport, Energy & Environment, AgriFood, Media & Content, Manufacturing & Logistics, and Social & Learning). While the press interviewed SmartCities projects’ developers (projects already in use in cities such as Málaga, Seville and Valencia), visitors exchanged their business cards and phone numbers while taking some coffee and presenting their ideas in different European languages. Representatives of other projects such as FoodLoop or Adevice were also present at the event and participated actively in it. The developers of another innovative project were also there. We are talking about Smartaxi, a Spanish app developed thanks to FIWARE, which allows taxi drivers to know where/when to find a higher number of customers. According to its webpage, the idea came to its developers’ minds thanks to a friend of theirs, who was a taxi driver himself.

In the halls of the School of Mathematics and Informatics of the University of Munich, where two big slides connect the highest floors to the main floor, different speeches showed that the technology is now a reality and that businesses are about to become real with the support of this Private-Public Partnership.

Which open calls are already open?

If you have a bright idea and you want to be part of this revolutionary breakthrough, you can also participate in the FIWARE Accelerator Programme! Six of the whole amount of 16 accelerators have already opened their open calls and are waiting for your proposal. Let’s see what they seek:

Soul-FI: it aims to enhance the development of Smart Cities in the areas of energy, mobility, environment, resources, tourism and quality of life. Is that your case? You have until the 31st of October to submit your proposal.

FI-Adopt: it will target highly innovative, yet realistic, and sustainable applications in the areas of learning and training, healthy behaviour and social integration. You also have until the 31st of October to submit your proposal.

CEED Tech: it longs to help young companies build viable products, launch them quickly and successfully raise capital in the domains of Smart Cities, energy, media and content, and manufacturing and logistics. Do you want to participate? Submit your proposal before the 15th of December.

SmartAgriFood: this accelerator will foster smart apps and services for agriculture. Do not miss this opportunity and submit your proposal before the 15th of November.

EuropeanPioneers:it is boosting digital media businesses in an intensive 8-month acceleration in the domains of Smart Cities, learning, social connected TV or pervasive gaming. Does it sound interesting to you? Submit your proposal before the 31st of October.

FICHe: FICHe will accelerate eHealth app development across Europe. If you want to be part of that development, submit your proposal before the 31st of October.

But these accelerators are just a part of the whole FIWARE Accelerator Programme, in coming weeks, more and more calls will be open. Submit your project and be part of the future, the change, the progress.

Let there be Internet, and there were great business opportunities. Since the mid-90s, the Internet reached everybody’s lives in nearly every aspect. Communication became instantaneous; transactions, encrypted; and businesses, online. When companies turned their traditional patterns into Internet-based models, we witnessed the coming of a revolution, the eBusiness revolution. And as it had already happened during the industrial revolution —a revolution radically changing factories—, the change of this particular circumstance did also affect people’s daily life, especially businessmen’s. But evolution is not to be stopped, and the Internet has got to a point where it no longer needs humans to be constantly uploading data on it, it can independently hold a dialogue with daily objects. That is what we call the Internet of Things. And this perspective is making us face a new business revolution (in which FIWARE takes an active part). What lessons can we draw from these previous breakthroughs? What can we then expect from this one?

Reducing efforts: Both the industrial and the eBusiness revolution shared one characteristic, technology can make our lives (and our work) easier. Reducing human efforts allowed people to focus on new ways of development.

A matter of speed: It is undeniable, machines work faster. During the eighteenth/nineteenth centuries, and the mid-90s, this fact made companies more efficient, and therefore, expanded their market possibilities, as they could produce more in less time.

Cost–cutting measures: The development of new technologies allowed companies to reduce costs on production and manpower, by automating processes. This reduction, combined with the two previous features, made companies more competitive.

Complementary phenomena: The development of industries fostered the development of other complementary phenomena, as it did happen in the nineteenth century with the advancement of the workers’ rights. During the mid-90s, the eBusiness revolution allowed everyone to have access to some goods and services that had been unreachable until then. May the IoT revolution allow a really transparent traffic of data?

Unprecedented possibilities: And the main similarity is that each and every one of these previous revolutions opened the door to unprecedented possibilities and unpredictable new worlds of industrial and business perspectives.

But, considering the facts we have already mentioned, can we really talk about a revolution? Or should we say just evolution? In medio, virtus. We cannot say that the IoT business revolution is a revolution as such, as it does not break with the past radically; but its more-than-innovative nature, just glimpsed still, is to be a turning point in business development and data processing. Evolution or revolution, actually it does not matter. Future in any case.

Are you a Startup, SME or web-entrepreneur, eager to design new apps and services? Europe offers you a chance to receive financing and support to develop your next Future Internet project.

The European Commission makes €80 million in funding available for the development of new web applications that make use of the already developed FIWARE open source technology.

FIWARE is an innovative, open cloud-based infrastructure for cost-effective creation and delivery of Future Internet applications and services, at a scale not seen before. FIWARE API specifications are public and royalty-free, driven by the development of an open source reference implementation which accelerates the availability of commercial products and services based on FIWARE technologies.

The event is promoted by CMP and SOUL-FI. SOUL-FI is one of the FIWARE accelerators which aims to grow innovative web-based solutions and services applying FIWARE technology. SOUL-FI provides funding to startups and SMEs (over €5 million in grants) and targeted support services to talented entrepreneurs to help bring new products (apps and services) to market.

During this information session (English spoken), we will provide more insight about the FIWARE technology and the FIWARE Accelerators program. In addition, we’ll focus on the first open calls, launched in Sep/Oct 2014. Selected projects will start end 2014, early 2015.

Participation in this event is free of charge, however we kindly ask you to register.

Are you a startup or small business with a bright idea for a new app or service? Want to get your hands on the tools to make that a reality – or the chance for a share of €80 million to get you started? If so, we have a great opportunity for you!

Whether it's smart cities or the internet of things – there are many great innovative ideas and apps out there. But many of them rely on the same "generic" enablers, basic building blocks from which you can create great things.

And this is where we can help. FI-WARE is a "toolbox" making all those building blocks available to use and innovate with, open, fast, interoperable, reusable, and reliable. Without the risk of getting "locked in" or dependent on one supplier. So you don't have to worry about fixing basic problems that others have already solved, but can focus on developing the specifics of your bright idea.

But I know the building blocks are not enough – you need the resources to help you see your idea through. FI-WARE also offers business support, mentoring and the chance to network and share with your peers. And from September there will be €80 million of EU money available for around 1300 small businesses and web entrepreneurs using those FI-WARE tools. That money won't come direct from the EU: but via those best able to understand and support startup needs – accelerators. The full list of the 16 accelerators is here — with each able to have a different focus.

If you're interested in then try out some of our tools at the FI-Lab portal – and keep an eye out here for your chance to grab a share of €80 million!

Blog, eventsComments Off on Mexico, first Latin American country to deploy FI-WARE

Jun272014

FI-WARE has announced today at Campus Party Mexico that INFOTEC will deploy and operate in Mexico the first Latin American node of a FI-WARE instance (FI-Lab), making the technology available to Mexican developers and entrepreneurs that wish to experiment with it. This collaboration between Europe and Mexico means a first step beyond European borders towards making FI-WARE a truly global open platform.

During the event FI-WARE experts will transfer their know-how to INFOTEC engineers so they can operate the first FI-Lab node in Mexico, as well as several presentations and workshops that will show to Mexican entrepreneurs the potential FI-WARE has in domains such as Smart Cities, connection to the Internet of Things or real-time processing and analysis of Big Data.

One of the main objectives that the deployment of FI-WARE in Mexico pursues is to reduce the existing backlog in Mexico in Future Internet technologies thanks to the use of FI-WARE's well-founded and proven technology. The deployment will start in October through a scalable node that will expand progressively and continuously until Mexico is fully equiped for Future Internet developments, reaching a computing capacity and storage similar to other nodes already deployed in Europe.

We hope that with this node FI-WARE can have a nation-wide impact, that it will be used by companies and innovators in the ICT sector. The idea is that the implementation of the platform can help universities, enterprises and governments to have the proper tools to streamline the generation of services offered to citizens in important issues such as security, energy and logistics" said Hugo Estrada, Researcher at INFOTEC.

The launch of this node will also mark the beginning of an ecosystem that promotes innovation in Mexico, creating greater opportunities for entrepreneurs in the country.

"FI-WARE is especially designed to facilitate the development of applications that address the need for connectivity with sensors and devices in the Internet of Things, as well as manage and process data and content at a large scale in real time. These differential elements make FI-WARE a tool that can boost the creation of innovative services and improve current processes, something essential for governments, cities and businesses today" said Juanjo Hierro, Chief Architecht of the FI-WARE platform.

"FI-WARE incorporates technology that articulates open innovation processes that enable entrepreneurs to develop new services around open data made ​​available. It is being a key in realizing open data policies within Administrations. Thanks to FI-WARE, cities can not only manage services for citizens more efficiently, but they can truly become innovation platforms" adds Hierro.

The initiative will be made possible in Mexico thanks to the collaboration of INFOTEC, CONACYT, TEC de Monterrey, CENIDET PLENUM and QoSLabs.

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